Clocks · Clock
Groningen 'staartklok' (tail clock), Netherlands, 19th century
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 19th century
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Netherlands
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- oak, brass
- Dimensions
- h. 172 cm
- Auction house
- Invaluable auction listings
- Lot
- Lot ADDD225E18
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 7724, Rugs, clocks, furniture and design, Veilinggebouw de Zwaan (2026), via Invaluable
- Catalogue title (original)
- HOLLAND, 'GRONINGEN STAARTKLOK', WALL CLOCK, 19TH CENTURY; (English)
Editor's note
Title rewritten in English from the auction house's own lot title (Dutch, German or run into the description); facts unchanged.View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Invaluable auction listings (lot Lot ADDD225E18), this is a clock, made in Netherlands, dated 19th century. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: oak, brass. Recorded dimensions: h. 172 cm. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Veilinggebouw de Zwaan
Movement driven by weight, verge escapement in combination with pendulum. One day duration. Painted dial with scene of fisherman at a lake and village on the background, brass hands. Oak case with verre eglomise panels in the hood with floral decoration, broken pediment with figure of Atlas and two victories. Complete with pendulum and weights. h. 172 cm Provenance: from a private Amsterdam estate, collected between the 1960's and 1980's [1] Een eikenhouten Groninger staartklok met bruidskrans, beschilderde wijzerplaat omgeven door vergulde metalen vier seizoenen, gebogen kap met open front en bekroond door drie figuren, 19e eeuw
Provenance
from a private Amsterdam estate, collected between the 1960's and 1980's [1] Een eikenhouten Groninger staartklok met bruidskrans, beschilderde wijzerplaat omgeven door vergulde metalen vier seizoenen
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Regulators, wall and Vienna clocks
A regulator is a precision pendulum clock used as a time standard in observatories, workshops and railway offices. Typical features are a deadbeat or Graham escapement, a temperature-compensated pendulum (mercury jar, gridiron or later invar), maintaining power and a regulator dial that separates hours, minutes and seconds. George Graham's deadbeat escapement (c. 1715) and his mercury pendulum, together with Harrison's gridiron, set the pattern for two centuries.
Wall clocks span a much wider range: the elegant Viennese Laterndluhr and Dachluhr of the Biedermeier period, the Dutch stoelklok and staartklok, English 'dial' clocks used in schools, offices and railway stations, and mass-produced spring and weight wall clocks from Germany (Gustav Becker, Junghans, Kienzle) and America.
What to look for
- Deadbeat escapement and compensated pendulum (gridiron rods, mercury jar or wood rod).
- A regulator dial with a large central minute hand and separate hour and seconds dials.
- Vienna regulators: glazed cases, slender pendulum, small weights, enamel two-piece dials.
- German factory trademarks stamped on the backplate (e.g. Gustav Becker anchor and crown, Junghans star).
Dating clues
- Graham-type deadbeat regulators: from c. 1720.
- Viennese Laterndluhr: c. 1800–1850.
- German factory 'Vienna-style' regulators: c. 1870–1930; Gustav Becker serial numbers allow close dating.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Deadbeat escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementGrasshopper escapement
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